(lighthearted flute music)
- I believe...so many spirits in nature.
Spirits of trees, spirit of the creek, here, and mountains.
So when I come here,
I feel like I become a part of the nature.
Yeah, this is totally my sanctuary here.
And really in beauty of nature help me.
[Narrator] Wataru Sugiyama moved to Ashland, from Japan,
more than 30 years ago.
(door opens) (palm banging)
He was pursuing a degree in speech communications
at Southern Oregon State College
and had to take an elective.
- And I chose ceramics.
I didn't know why, but I think maybe the universe guided me.
I really like hand-built three-dimensional sculptures.
And I just got into it.
So I'm doing sculpting life for 28 years,
I used to be a civil engineer, making good money.
A lot of materialistic life, but my heart was very empty.
So I came here and I'm very happy now.
- [Narrator] It's easy to make the mistake
of thinking that Wataru is creating this turtle figure.
But what he's really doing is helping it to create itself.
[Wataru] Then, just gently bend it.
(laughs)
- [Narrator] Informed and animated by unknown spirits,
Wataru's creatures come in an endless variety of forms.
There are owls
and elephants
and a frequent visitor to Wataru's world, the rhinoceros.
There are fierce dragons wearing slippers.
And scholarly turtles.
There are even tiny dogs discussing literature
under an umbrella on top of another dog.
- [Wataru] They definitely come out from my inner child.
I try to integrate my mature part
and very playful inner child part.
But I admit it I'm age of 62.
I think I still have very, very immature part,
but this is I don't care. I just live my life, who I am.
(soft music)
- [Narrator] Whether mature or childlike,
Wataru's work is following a long tradition
of artistic mastery.
- I believe inside a stone, there is a spirit,
or wisdom, or you may say, soul.
- [Narrator] One soul lives here
at the Ashland public library.
Wataru comes to visit often.
- Water, I feel like it purifies the soul of the stone.
(water splashing)
(lighthearted flute music)
I start with the conversation with the stone.
He guides me, what's the best way to shape it.
Until I hear that voice, I don't wanna touch it.
And I just chitted it out.
Where should I stop?
And stones told to me,
Wataru, thank you. This is enough.
It's so beautiful now, the beautiful moss
growing around the bottom of the sculpture.
I think my spirit in the soul
maybe dwell inside my sculptures.
[Narrator] An ancient soldiers stand steeled for battle.
When something happens, that changes his fate forever.
- [Wataru] This white bird, it's flying over him
and just come to his hand.
So that moment this awakening happen,
he get back to humanity, back to his heart.
This takes generations on generations,
many centuries goes by,
finally the white bird
is just sitting on the broken soldiers sword.
Overcome
(chisel cracking)
22 years ago, my father died, and I went to the funeral
and I really realized that I didn't know him.
After that I'm very far away from my mother,
so I had a chance to go back home
and ask her so many questions about her life.
I have three sisters, and I have one brother,
I'm the youngest.
But she painfully confessed
I could have a younger brother or a sister.
But my family is so big and she cannot handle it.
So she aborted.
I feel like, I never knew that story.
This piece is like really my true feeling,
but just very deep.
I wanna just express my pain and compassion
to my brother and sister.
Also like mother's pain too
must be very very painful, but she had to make a decision.
So that's why I've got really, really strong feeling
in this one here.
And stone accepted.
"Okay, Wataru, you do it.
- [Narrator] A few years ago, Wataru's mother passed away.
- I went back to my homeland,
to say a final goodbye to my mom.
I was not able to accept my mother's death
and lost the motivation to continue my career.
I was down.
- [Narrator] Wataru was in in Kyoto to see a sister
when he heard a voice calling him from a nearby mountain.
- [Wataru] "Hey, Wataru, come, come, come."
Very, very strongly, I felt this mountain invited me.
- [Narrator] Following the voice to a temple,
Wataru stood before the alter.
- Sadly, I am not able to explain the feeling,
but I feel very energized.
In that moment it's I felt totally more than 100% recharged,
full of energy,
and encouraged me to get back to the U.S,
continue my mission.
- [Narrator] What emerged was a spirit
that embodied his mother's strength and stability
and perhaps a touch of whimsy.
- [Wataru] I just created like a rhinoceros
with a Japanese kimono on
and the purpose is to heal my pain.
- [Narrator] Like the soldier,
Wataru's rhinoceros is visited by a small bird.
- [Wataru] I'm wishing this bird
guide my mother's soul back to her home.
- [Narrator] Wataru is now casting the rhinoceros in bronze.
- It looks like an orange juice.
No matter how many times I try, it makes me very nervous,
but I like this kind of tension.
(drum rolls)
(sizzling)
To complete this rhino sculpture,
we have to pour another maybe 10 times more
and its gonna turn really beautiful then you feel like,
"Oh my gosh. Just like a new life was born."
I enjoy making a sculpture,
but sometimes my sculpture can do good things to the people,
make them laugh, make them smile, make them feel sad.
People are moved, or something.
(stone cracking)
I feel like I finally understand why I was born, my mission.
I never had it when I was an engineer.
I know the mood by looking at my blueprints.
I cannot quit my career anymore.
I'm 62, other 20, 30 years,
until the day I return my soul to the universe. Let's go!